Post by oldhippy on Jan 30, 2020 9:42:12 GMT
The Air Force Is Testing a Hypersonic Rocket Booster
The X-60A will propel vehicles at speeds in excess of Mach 6.
The X-60A will propel vehicles at speeds in excess of Mach 6.
By Kyle Mizokami
The X-60A is a test vehicle designed to aid hypersonic weapon research, reaching speeds of mach 8.
Hypersonic vehicles can reach temperatures of 3,800 degrees, making testing difficult.
The rocket is meant to fly payloads at hypersonic speeds, allowing scientists to test the stresses of high speed flight on the payload.
The Air Force Research Laboratory's X-60A hypersonic research rocket completed a new round of realistic ground testing. The rocket’s engine was tested in both “cold flow” and “hot fire” testing, and incorporated realistic operational procedures that a real rocket might face. The goal of the program is to create an affordable, reliable hypersonic propulsion system, one that can reach Mach 7.
Hypersonic vehicles can reach temperatures of 3,800 degrees, making testing difficult.
The rocket is meant to fly payloads at hypersonic speeds, allowing scientists to test the stresses of high speed flight on the payload.
The Air Force Research Laboratory's X-60A hypersonic research rocket completed a new round of realistic ground testing. The rocket’s engine was tested in both “cold flow” and “hot fire” testing, and incorporated realistic operational procedures that a real rocket might face. The goal of the program is to create an affordable, reliable hypersonic propulsion system, one that can reach Mach 7.
The Air Force says the X-60A’s propulsion system recently, “achieved a key developmental milestone with the completion of integrated vehicle propulsion system verification ground testing”.
The X-60A is an expendable rocket meant to carry hypersonic payloads. The rocket is designed to be carried to 35,000 feet slung underneath a Gulfstream III business jet. The Gulfstream then releases the X-60A, which ignites its Ursa Major Tech’s Hadley rocket booster. The rocket soars to 70,000 to 130,000 feet, then cruises unpowered at at Mach 6-8. Possible payloads include a full scale mockup of a hypersonic vehicle, such as a scramjet-powered vehicle.
The X-60A is meant to speed up hypersonic weapon research. It would allow scientists and engineers to test a hypersonic vehicle body while continuing separate research on the propulsion system. Vehicles traveling at hypersonic speeds, starting at Mach 5 and up, are subjected to incredible aerodynamic stresses, a product of forcing the vehicle through air at speeds in excess of 3,800 miles an hour. That’s not all: friction between the skin of the object and the surrounding air can push temperatures surface temperatures as high as 3,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
All of that makes hypersonic vehicle research extremely difficult. The X-60A would allow hypersonic research to proceed in tandem, separating the hypersonic vehicle design from the propulsion system design. Scientists could perfect the vehicle design with the X-60A and then add the propulsion system, then finally test the complete weapon system.
The X-60A is meant to pursue two hypersonic weapon propulsion technologies: boost glide, which uses a rocket booster to push a hypersonic weapon to high speed, and scramjets, air-breathing engines that gulp air at supersonic speeds. The question is whether or not the X-60A itself could someday be part of a hypersonic weapon system.
All of that makes hypersonic vehicle research extremely difficult. The X-60A would allow hypersonic research to proceed in tandem, separating the hypersonic vehicle design from the propulsion system design. Scientists could perfect the vehicle design with the X-60A and then add the propulsion system, then finally test the complete weapon system.
The X-60A is meant to pursue two hypersonic weapon propulsion technologies: boost glide, which uses a rocket booster to push a hypersonic weapon to high speed, and scramjets, air-breathing engines that gulp air at supersonic speeds. The question is whether or not the X-60A itself could someday be part of a hypersonic weapon system.